ABBIE'S PAR-TAY

Well, here it is- THE CAKE. It didn't turn out like I'd hoped, but it was cute! I need to attend some cake decorating classes!!! Thank goodness for Kacey's suggestion of dipping the bottom in chocolate! It looked so cute (and tasted yummy)!

The party was so fun! We had lots of fun before playing outside in the sprinklers and jumping on the trampoline. Kacey got some cute pictures of that. I hope she posts them! (HINT HINT)

Our families are great!!! My parents, Meg, Kacey & her lot drove up Saturday morning. It was so fun having my sisters and parents here. I'm so thankful for the effort my mom & dad make as grandparents! It was a long drive for just one day! My kids get sad to have no one here for games and parties and such. Thank goodness we have Amy and Brycen here (Lain's baby sister and her husband)! They always make our kids feel so special! What would we do without them?! (Happy Birthday, Brycen!)

So, it was a great weekend! I was sad to see everyone go! I hope that visit will last me a while! Although, we are very excited to see Eliza & Curtis next weekend! It will be just like being with family! We haven't seen each other in so long.

I will post some of the cute cousin pics later! I got sick of loading pictures!

A little visitor

We had a visitor in our backyard today!

At first she was up near the trees. Then she decided to come down and eat some strawberries! The boys were so excited! We even went and got some of our friends to come and see our "visitor"! She just kept grazing and didn't even seem disturbed by the 7 kids watching her eat! ( I was getting nervous because she was nearing my vegetable garden!)What a fun experience!

Laundry

I was just wondering if anyone else can go through an entire bottle of stain remover in one load of wash?

HELLO?!!!!!!!! Am I raising little piggies?!

Just curious.

*sigh*

I really do love them!

Aren't they cute? They are totally worth it!

Messy girl!

We had so much fun celebrating Abbie's birthday yesterday!! I baked a chocolate cake (the cupcake cake comes Saturday- for the party). It was so yummy!

Her favorite thing was the singing. She was so happy that everyone was singing to her! She really wanted to get her hands on the cake!

She finally did!!!!!

Not to mention every other body part!!!!!

This was pre bathtub clean up!

Afterward, she got to play with her new toys.

And THEN she wanted a Coke! Poor baby! It was just an empty one!

Mommy can remedy that one later!

Like mother, like daughter!!

Happy Birthday, Abbie!!!

I remember the day of the ultrasound. The conversation went something like this:

Tech: "Do you want to know what you're having?"

Me: "I know. It's a boy."

Tech: "No. It's a girl."

Me: "Are you sure? I know it's a boy."

Tech: "No. Look. Leg, leg, and nothing in between."

Me: "Are you really sure?"

I made that poor girl show me multiple between-the-leg shots on that baby and I STILL didn't believe it was a girl!

I bought all of two items of clothing before the baby was born: a yellow short outfit, and a white sweater. I just couldn't bring myself to buy the pink. But, don't worry, the pink came. It came in abundance!!! Almost everything was pink. I couldn't even bring myself to wash it. I just knew it would all have to go back. Finally, my mom came to stay for a couple of weeks, and I actually washed the clothes. This is where things got real to me. Do you know what I saw? PINK FLUFF!! For the first time in my life, the dryer lint was totally pink. What was that all about? I mean, I've had pink clothes before, but not enough to turn the lint totally pink. Amazing! Was I really ready for this?

Abigail Elizabeth Duke was born exactly one year ago! From the moment she entered this world, she entranced me! I fell in love immediately! Who was this perfect little person? How could I be so blessed a fourth time? (I have never felt worthy of any of my children.) I couldn't take my eyes off of her perfect little round head and flawless pink skin. She took my breath away! We had been so worried she would be too early and have to stay in the hospital like her brothers had. But she was healthy. A tiny little miracle! (I started dilating when I was just 29 weeks.) She was determined from the beginning and stayed put until 37 weeks. Little did we know how strong-willed this child really was!

I like to say her dad spoils her. (He really does.) I have to admit, however, he is not the only one. She has hardly left my side since the day she was born. Her bassinet only was used about 5 times in the first 3 months of her life. She slept with me the rest of the time! (We moved her into her crib after that.) She goes with me everywhere. She is my little partner while shopping. We play outside in the grass or swing on the swing set. She loves being outside. I love all of the time we have together. It's fun to be able to enjoy so much time together. She was born further apart than the boys were, so it gives us an opportunity to spend more time together. I love it so much!

We call her the grand finale, the caboose, the icing on the cake or whatever other weird cliche comes to our minds. She really does finish off our family perfectly. Lain & I often tell people one girl is plenty for us. And that's no lie! We definitely have our hands full with her! She has got more personality than any child I have ever met!! You can read her by just looking at the expression on her face. AMAZING! She has had dramatic ups and downs from the minute she was born. It's hilarious! She definitely knows what she wants! She is a serious pistol! I wouldn't have her any other way.

Her brothers worship her. Adam was not excited to have a girl at first. It meant having "girl toys" in the house. After a couple of months (during the pregnancy), he said it was okay as long as she was a tomboy! He is her biggest fan now. That not-so-affectionate child can't get enough of his baby sister. None of them can! She is, by far, the most loved child on the planet! She has earned the title "Princess" in our home. I'm sure that will endure!

I know she was sent to our family to complete it. We would not be content without her. Some days I only make it through because she has flashed me her gappy little smile! I never in a million years would have thought that a little girl could be so much fun and make us all so happy. We are so happy she could come and be a part of our family!

We love you Abbie! Happy 1st birthday!!!!

Baseball

Well, the baseball season is finally over! I ended up liking it far more than I had anticipated! Don't get me wrong, it was still crazy busy and took up a lot of our time, BUT Adam really enjoyed himself.

This was the first year we actually had a good coach and the first year they played the kids in a position. They had Adam going between SS and catcher. They finally settled him in as catcher for the tournament, because he really did well there. He loved it!!!

Yesterday we played the championship game. The team we played had gone undefeated. We lost by one run. The boys were heartbroken! It was hard to watch them all be so sad! I am so proud of the whole team and how hard they played! We came in second place and that's amazing! I can't wait for next year! ( I really can't believe I just typed that!)

Giant Cupcake- MMMMMM

I have decided to attempt to make something similar to this for Abbie's birthday cake.

I also want to make these to go along with it.

http://www.bakerella.com

What do you all think? Too ambitious, or doable?

We finally have family pictures

We haven't had family pictures since Adam was a year old!! We've wanted to, but I absolutely hate being in pictures! I think I have the roundest face in existence! I keep waiting to get back to my weight I was when we got married. HA HA HA!

Well, I wasn't getting any skinnier, so I figured we'd get 'em anyway! We'll have new ones done (nicer ones) after Alli moves here!!!!

The hubby and kids look cute, though!

My garden fetish

I'm so sick of looking at that last post! Boo hoo hoo! Thanks for all the nice comments, people!

Anyway, I have moooooved on!

Over the weekend we tilled our garden and got it ready for planting. I figured it might just get warm and stay there one of these days. I planted my lilacs in front (right now it looks like I just planted sticks- let's hope that changes). Now I am ready to start planting all of the veggies in back.

Today I took the kids all around getting the different varieties of tomatoes I want in there. PLUS, I wanted a specific kind of flower to go along my walkway, so we had to go to three different nurseries before I found those. I wanted red Columbine, NOT blue or pink or even yellow. You see, once I paint my shutters and my doors red (I've had the paint since we moved in almost two years ago), the red flowers will really stand out. Right now the door and shutters are green, you know, that lovely forest green from the 80's & 90's?! I even have a lovely tile address plaque with green and colored flowers all over it over the door to match! Aren't I lucky? ANYWHOOOO, once I paint them, my gardening will make sense. We ripped up all of the old rose bushes, and planted the red lilacs instead (I plan on getting a cute bench to go between the two lilac bushes); then we pulled up the bushes and flowers along the walkway and planted blue lobelia with the red columbine- SO Pretty- especially after they all fill out. I also planted three red geraniums under my bay window. They should get nice and big. I can't wait to see how pretty it all looks! I should take a before and after shot- the after will be a long time coming, though! Besides, I still have PLENTY ripping out to do and replanting also. I did buy a white hydrangea to put in the back yard- it was on clearance today!!

Gardening makes me happy, so I figured I'd get busy with it! I bought a bunch of herbs today. I also bought 11 tomato plants, 3 jalapenos, a cucumber, a zucchini, a crookneck squash, and I'm trying to find a watermelon plant right now. I just hope I can keep it all alive!!! The house came with six fruit trees and the only ones we seem to have trouble with are the two apple trees. They seem disease prone. We get a ton of pears and peaches, though. Yum! We also have strawberries (I picked a whole bowl full yesterday and there are still tons to pick) and I planted some raspberries when we first moved in. The raspberries seem to be doing better this year. I think we got maybe two berries last year because we had a major ant problem. This yard keeps us VERY busy! It is beautiful, though!

Sorry about all of this boring gardening garb, but I love it! I wanted to write something positive about my life, and this is what I've been doing lately. So, as soon as my new camera gets here, I will take some pics and post them. I might even make a post or two!

OH, I almost forgot!!!! Lain won an IPod today at work!! He was drawn in a raffle! It's a video one- 30 GB! I told him that I think our luck is changing! He just laughed. I don't think he believes me! ;-) I hope I'm right!

Venting

Don't read this. It is for venting purposes only!

Okay, I'm bugged.

I need to vent.

Remember how baseball was supposed to be done? It's not. Apparently we have the tournament coming up and it's double-elimination. Our team has only lost one game the whole season. THAT means that we are probably going to have to play many more games! Oh joy. So now I have to go on a search for a left-handed catcher's mitt. I haven't been able to find one in Bountiful or Centerville, so I don't know if they are anywhere around here at all. I thought, "No big deal. I have a whole year to look for that. I can order it online or something." NO!!! (Why couldn't he be great at shortstop or outfield or something that only required him using his left-handed baseball mitt?) Oh well!

I'm also a little frustrated with this week. It's seeming to drag on! I'm thinking that I need to get this crew under control. I have started "chore mornings" with the boys. This is more of a chore for me than for them because I am having to teach them to do all of this crap! Why is this parenting thing biting me in the rear all the time? I thought we were supposed to have kids so I could have more help around here? ( Yeah, I didn't really think that. That's just what my dad said everytime I asked why I had so many chores.) I guess it will be easier once they learn how to do everything. Until then, I will continue with the ins and outs of toilet scrubbing!

Now for the real pity party!

I'm lonely! I miss my family! I hate this stupid cold weather we keep having! HELLO!!!! It's JUNE!!! I also hate my stupid old house! I have to share a bathroom with all these boys who pee all over my floor and seat! WHY? I'm trying to be positive, but I'm not feelin' it lately! I want sunshine and my sisters! I have some friends, but everyone is so busy all the time, we rarely get together. I haven't had time to go to the gym in 2 weeks and so I'm feeling horrible about myself, too. I just wish things would start to look up sometime. I wish Preston would stop having meltdowns all the time and that Abbie would let me get some housework done. I wish my husband would take me on a date without me having to initiate it! I just wish I could have one day with no crazy stress. Not likely.

I do know that one day I will look back at this time in life and say it wasn't so bad, but right now, it seems like it's been 6 years of total crap falling day after day. I know Preston is doing better. I know Lain has a better job. I realize that I am in a great neighborhood and awesome ward. My husband loves me and treats me wonderful and is the best dad EVER! I just feel sad that I'm up here alone and wish I had my family close to help me endure it better!

Sorry if anyone was in a great mood and I ruined your day! I hope you understand I am not typically a negative person. I have just had a cruddy day and haven't had a Coke for a few days!

THAT'S IT!!! This is all just withdrawal! ;-P